Slam, Bam, Thank You Ma'am

So after training a couple of Saturdays ago, I got on TRAX and headed south to Sandy to meet Nancy for dinner and a showing of X-Men: The Last Stand. (See Army of Dorkness for my views, and Derek's, on the movie.) We went to Costa Vida for dinner, then headed to the theater to meet some friends for the show. On the way, our car got hit.

Here's what happened: We were stopped at a stop sign in the parking lot. As we were waiting for an opening in traffic, a Ford Explorer pulled up behind our little Nissan Maxima. The Explorer also came to a complete stop. We both watched a car go by. Then, apparently not seeing the car we were still waiting for, the lady in the Explorer gunned it. The impact pushed us 2-3 feet out into traffic.

We managed to get out of the road without being T-boned, and we started gathering information. The lady who hit us was just getting of a long shift at PetsMart, and she had been talking on her cell phone at the time. Long story short, she accepted full responsibility for the accident and offered to pay us directly for whatever damages we and our car may have suffered. It's not that she was worried about her insurance rates; she didn't want her husband to find out she'd been in an accident. Because he wouldn't have noticed the damage to her car, I guess. Anyway, after a few minutes of looking around, it became obvious this wasn't the kind of thing she'd probably be able to pay cash for. So we got her insurance information, and left for the theater. The car was thankfully still drivable.

(Small irony: The auto insurance on my car expired on May 24th, son on May 22nd, we signed up with a new insurance company for both of our cars. The wreck happened on May 27th. We hadn't even received the information packet in the mail yet.)

We called our new insurance company on the way to the theater and gave them all the information. They arranged for an adjuster to come look at the car the following Tuesday morning. His estimate for the damage: $865.32, none of which we were going to have to pay, fortunately. A day or two later, we got a call from the lady's insurance telling us they were accepting full financial responsibility for the repairs and asking us to take it to their preferred body shop. We took the car in on Monday of last week and drove off in a rental.

The following day we got a call from the said body shop. Their more extensive estimate was a bit higher: $2400. They said they'd discovered quite a bit more damage once they got the rear bumper off. So they were going to replace, repair, and repaint as necessary, a process which would take about a week.

So it's been just over a week now, and we're still in the rental. (It's a 2005 Ford Taurus, a nice enough car, but the visibility isn't great if you're tall and the seats are a little uncomfortable. And the milage isn't as good as the Maxima's. But otherwise, a nice enough car.) We got a call from the body shop today saying the replacement bumper they ordered came in damaged, so they're getting a replacement for the replacement. Then they'll send it to the paint shop, and we'll have it back after that. So another two or three days, it looks like.

Meanwhile, we've been dealing with minor injuries from the crash. Nancy felt neck and back pain immediately. I didn't but I've been really stiff since then. So Nancy called up one of her friends from Kentucky who happens to be a chiropractor and who just moved to Salt Lake City and joined a clinic near her Mom's house. So we've gone in three times now. The first time was for an initial examination, X-rays, and a little sales pitch about the benefits of the drug-free chiropractic treatment system. (Is it just me, or are all chiropractors zealots? I wasn't sure whether I was in a doctor's office or an Amway meeting.) The second time we went back for further indoctrination and a discussion of our results. We also got our first adjustment. Then yesterday we got a full adjustment. I have to admit, it feels good. I've had back troubles for a long time, and I can feel a difference. I just wish we could get the treatment without the hard sell.

So we're going back to the spine crackers tomorrow, and we should have our car back by the end of the week. Normality, here we come.